We’ll cross the next bridge when we come to it, right?
Unfortunately, I ache quite a bit the next day. Wow, I didn’t know you could hurt there. I guess I’m not surprised, but I tell them I’m going to need a bit of time to recover.
“We will resume taking turns, then,” pronounces Khesan.
I like that approach, too.
It’s New Year’s Eve, which means Rex-A-Tron. I can’t wait. We get out of bed late, then drag our feet cooking and eating and doing the other chores like shoveling the driveway. It snowed last night, and Khesan and Shathar are still amazed by the powdery white stuff.
“I enjoyed that quite a lot,” Khesan says when he’s done clearing off the front walk. “Fascinating, so much water that it must be shoveled. Can you imagine having so much water on Arshur, Shathar?”
Shathar shakes his head in wonder.
Finally, it’s time to get ready. We all hustle to our separate rooms to put on our new outfits for the show tonight, and then filter down to the living room as we finish. Khesan is, unsurprisingly, the last to arrive. His pink belt and collar look stellar, and his crop top exposes his midriff.
“Hot.” I creep over to him and then wrap my arms around his neck. “I like you like this. Kind of… effeminate, maybe?”
Khesan cocks his head. “Well, there is no gendered dress on Arshur,” he says. “I can change if you like.”
“No!” I stop him with a firm hand on his arm. “Absolutely not. I love it. He looks good, right, Shathar?”
Shathar blinks. “Oh. Um, yes. He does.”
It surprises me. I thought for sure he would deflect or perhaps try to put down Khesan. Instead, his cheeks turn a bluish-purple, and then he quickly says, “Shall we go?”
“Sure thing.” I wink at Shathar as I call up a car and we all head to the door.
“Aliens!” says the driver when he arrives. “Sweet. Never seen an alien before. One of you green guys want to sit up front?”
Shathar sighs. “I will sit in front.”
“It’s all right,” says Khesan. “I am better with questions than you are.”
Shathar doesn’t disagree, so we all take our places in the car. Sure enough, the driver is chock-full of curiosity.
“You have tails,” he says, awed. “What brought you to Earth?”
Khesan nods at me in the back seat. “The Galactic Matching Program. We are both married to her.”
Shathar nods in agreement.
“Wait, so both of you are her husbands?” the driver asks, mystified.
“Indeed. For now.” Khesan’s neck bends as he says it. “There is a thirty-day trial period.”
“Whoa. Like a reality show. What happens at the end? Are y’all going to stay married?”
“That is the hope,” Khesan says. His eyes go to mine in the rearview mirror. “That we will be together forever.”
My heart skips in my chest.
The driver asks even more questions, which Khesan happily answers, and his honesty is a little too much. Rex-A-Tron is pumping music when the car drops us off out front and the driver eagerly speeds off. On the curb, I pull out my phone and dial Amara’s number.
“Almost there,” she says when she picks up. “Marguerite said she just arrived. Oh, and my friend Kendall’s coming.”
Right. Amara’s work buddy. I know what she looks like, but I don’t have her number, so I text Marguerite with our location and then wait. She finds us moments later, even though the place is already filling up fast inside and out.
“Margie!” I throw myself at her, wrapping her up in a hug.
